(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of preventing an etcher from being eroded, and more particularly, to a method of prevent parts of an etcher from being eroded.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuit (IC) technology has produced dramatic advances over the past 30 years. During the manufacturing process, a several of techniques, such as deposition, etching, photolithography, and ion implantation, are applied over and over to form devices and circuits on a semiconductor substrate. The deposition techniques are performed to form dielectric or conductive films. The photolithography technique is used to replicate circuit and device features, and the desired pattern is transferred by means of the etching techniques.
There are two kinds of etching techniques in the semiconductor industry, e.g. wet etching process and dry etching process. In order to avoid the undercut effect and enhance the precision of pattern, dry etching process which is able to provide anisotropic etching is widely applied in ULSI manufacturing. Dry etching is synonymous with plasma-assisted etching, which encompasses several techniques that use plasma in the form of low-pressure gas discharges.
In the late 1970s, a new etching technique, reactive ion etching (RIE), was disclosed. In this etching process, the wafer is placed on an RF capacitive-coupled bottom electrode, which is considerably smaller than the grounded part of the system. The etch selectivity of RIE technology can be improved by choosing the proper etch chemistry, for example, by polymerizing the silicon surface with fluorocarbon polymers to obtain selectivity of SiO2 over silicon.
According to the RIE etching technique, silicon oxide is etched by means of CHF3 or CF4 as etchant. On the other hand, chlorine-based chemistry has generally been used for Al etching, and bromine-based chemistry has been investigated recently.
Cl2 is generally used to etch clean aluminum for forming vias in an etcher. Chlorine has a very high chemical etch rate with aluminum and tends to produce an undercut during aluminum etching. Moreover, carbon-containing gas is added to form organic sidewall passivation during aluminum etching to obtain etch directionality. However, the organic material is formed not only on the sidewall of the vias, but also on the inner wall of the etcher. The organic material (including chlorine gas) attached on the inner wall of the etcher forms particle source of contamination, so that the high vacuum for performing the etching process is not able to achieve.
In order to remove the residual organic material (including chlorine gas) on the parts and the inner wall of the etcher, a cleaning step is needed by using H2O2 solution as cleaning agent according to the prior art. The H2O2 solution is generally 10% H2O2+water, 5% H2O2+water, or IPA+water. However, the water in the H2O2 solution will react with the residual chlorine gas to form hydrochloric acid (HCl) during the cleaning step. The high corrosiveness of hydrochloric acid will corrode the parts of the etcher to shorten their lifetime, especially for the parts made of Al2O3.
For example, the gas ring of an etcher Alliance 9400 is made of Al2O3. According to the prior art, the gas ring of the etcher will be severely eroded after performing two times of cleaning steps. As a result, the user of the etcher needs a rich stock of parts in order for instantly exchanging. For this reason, the corrosion effect in the etcher not only increases the manufacturing cost, but also causes a risk of running out of stock.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method of preventing parts of an etcher from being eroded.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of preventing an etcher from being eroded by using a hydrogen-free chemical compound.
A method of prevention maintenance preventing parts of an etcher from being eroded is disclosed in one embodiment of the present invention. First, the parts of the etcher are immersed into a tank containing hydrogen-free chemical compound. After that, a standard process of prevention maintenance is performed by means of a cleaning agent.
A method of prevention maintenance preventing parts of an etcher from being eroded is disclosed in another embodiment of the present invention. First, a layer of hydrogen-free chemical compound is formed on surface of the parts of the etcher. After that, a standard process of prevention maintenance is performed by means of a cleaning agent.
The present invention further discloses a method of using perfluorohexane (C6F14) solution, wherein the method is to form a layer of perfluorohexane (C6F14) on a surface of a spare part of an etcher as a protection layer, whereby the layer of perfluorohexane (C6F14) can avoid the spare part from being eroded by hydrochloric acid.